New M1903 owner with questions

[cplstevennorton]

Well it has the Marine #10 sights. The Marine Depot at Philly manufactured their own sights to put on the 1903's and this one has a set. Now they do repo these now and side by side they are hard to tell different from the originals. All the originals I've seen look like they were mostly handmade as there is just slight differences in them. This rifle also has a hatcher hole.

There are a few things that look like they might have been changed to me, but I do think at one time it was a Marine rifle, especially with that range in the SRS. That is usually the biggest tale as they usually group together and you look for other traits to confirm it.

It would be nice if it had more traits so you could say 100%. And it very well might and we just don't have pics to be able to tell. But it certainly has more chances of one time being Marine than not.

Very nice rifle.

[paleofit]

Thanks!

The front sight blade mics at 0.10 thick and the exposed height is 0.311 if I measured correctly.

Given that it's an 1918 receiver with a 1919 bolt, is it possible that they could have been assembled together?

At this point, the serial, sights, Hatcher hole, lack of cartouches on the stock all could support the possibility of an ex-Marine (my Marine buddies would claim there's no such thing). Would a Marine armorer had access to an A1 cutoff if necessary to make a replacement?

Is there anything else I can look for?

Thanks again everyone for the assist. I'm looking forward to putting some rounds through this Friday.